Gizmodo: blu-ray recorder

Sharp Aquos DX LCDs Come With Integrated Blu-Ray Recorders

Elaine Chow — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:30:00 EDT

If you're in the market for a new television and a Blu-Ray player, Sharp will help you kill two birds with one of its new Aquos DXs. The company has released a line of LCD TVs that have built-in Blu-Ray disc recorders, which they tout as an all-in-one solution for recording television onto BDs... in case there's television that's actually worth the trouble. The 16 sets in the Aquos DX line range from 26-inch to 52-inch models and cost between $1,600 and $4,900.

The larger models (37-inches and up) boast 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, a 2000:1 contrast ratio, 30W speakers, a 176 degree viewing angle and nine different types of input. The smaller versions have a 1,366x768 pixel resolution, a 1500:1 contrast ratio, and 20W speakers. [Sharp via Akihabara News]

Sony's BWU-300S Blu-ray Recorder Burns 50GB in 30 Minutes

John Mahoney — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:15:00 EDT

Not to be outdone by the folks at Buffalo, Sony's latest internal SATA BD recorder can achieve 8x writing speeds on the latest 6x BD-R media, for zapping 25GB in 15 minutes and 50Gb in 30. DVDs are also written, of course, at 16x. It's $400 and shipping next month, with an included Men In Black Blu-ray disc from the good folks at Sony Pictures. Where's your Will Smith, Buffalo? Full details follow:

SONY DEBUTS 8X BLU-RAY DISC WRITER DRIVE

Sub-$400 Model Leaps Ahead in Recording Speed; Includes Blu-Ray Disc Movie Title “Men In Black”

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 23, 2008 – Sony Electronics today announced its third generation internal Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) writer for the computer aftermarket, which at about $400 achieves a new level of affordability for BD enthusiasts.

The new BWU-300S model burns single and dual layer BD-R media at up to 8X speed, recording a full 25GB disc in about 15 minutes and a full 50GB disc in about 30 minutes. The 8X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media. The drive also records DVDs at up to 16X, CDs up to 48X, and supports DVD-RAM recording, with an eye towards data backup, making it an excellent replacement burner for a standard DVD drive while offering all the benefits of Blu-ray Disc technology.

To provide consumers with the opportunity to experience high-definition movie playback first-hand, the new drive comes bundled with a “Men in Black” Blu-ray Disc from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “Men In Black” stars Will Smith (“Hancock”) and Oscar®-winner Tommy Lee Jones (“The Fugitive”) saving the world from a total intergalactic disaster in Barry Sonnenfeld’s smash-hit sci-fi action comedy. The “Men In Black” high-definition Blu-ray Disc boasts advanced BD-Live enabled bonus features, including a multiplayer trivia game, an interactive Frank the Pug advice generator, an alien subtitle track and much more.

Also included with the drive is CyberLink’s software suite for capturing, authoring, editing, burning and viewing high-definition personal content.

“Consumers are demanding a better experience,” said Bob DeMoulin, marketing manager for branded storage products in Sony Electronics’ IT Products Division. “Not only are we providing state of the art hardware, but also the industry’s most complete software bundle and premium content.”

“Sony's new 8X Blu-ray Disc writable drive significantly improves the BD recording speed, a key feature in the optical storage technology,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director for removable storage at IDC. “The explosion of digital media usage by consumers, whether in the form of high-definition video, music or data, continues to grow at exponential rates. Innovative products such as this next-generation drive will help fuel the acceleration of Blu-ray adoption in the years ahead with more than 100 million drives shipping worldwide by 2011.”

The BWU-300S drive can record up to 50GB of data for random access storage and backup on BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) discs, or up to 230 minutes of high-definition HDV 1080i video on a BD-R/RE 50GB disc. It also supports recording on standard single layer 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW/-RAM discs, 8.5GB DVD+R double/dual layer discs, and CDs.

The internal drive features a Serial ATA (SATA) interface and standard 5.25-inch form-factor for easy installation inside a desktop PC with Microsoft® Windows XP or Windows Vista® operating systems.

The new drive is fully supported by Adobe® Encore® CS3 software, now included with Adobe Premiere® Pro CS3, and Sony’s Vegas Pro 8 and DVD Architect Pro 5 software, providing video production professionals with another option for outputting high-definition video on a Blu-ray Disc with MPEG-2 or H.264 compression.

Availability

The BWU-300S drive will be available through select retailers, resellers and directly at sonystyle.com starting next month. Pre-orders are now being accepted by Sony on the website.

Sony's New Blu-ray Recorder Moves TV (not BD) Vid to PSP

Kit Eaton — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:58:13 EDT

Does this make up for the "no PS3 Blu-ray to PSP" transfer story? Kind of. Sony's new BDZ-A70 Blu-ray recorder system won't do that either, but will record your TV shows, and can transfer that video content to your PSP or Sony Walkman. That's kind of a consolation, and there's even a "one touch" button on the front to make it easy— it apparently can transfer about 60 minutes of QVGA video in around 3 minutes.

It's also got twin analog and digital tuners so you can record one channel and watch another, and it sports Sony's Roomlink interface. There's one HDMI-out for your TV, plus all the usual optical and analog video and audio connectors. It's due out in Japan April 30th for around $1,670. [AV Watch]

New AQUOS Blu-Ray Recorders from Sharp Have Up to 1TB Storage

AddyDugdale — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:42:33 EDT

Sharp has announced new Blu-ray recorders in Japan, with the 1TB hard drive-equipped BD-HDW20 as the new flagship. The player can start recording from its two digital or one analog tuners in under one second.

The $2,620 recorder is followed by the BD-HDW15, which packs a 500GB HD for $1,750.

The other models are the BD-AV10 and BD-AV1, which don't have hard drives built in but come in seven different colors. [Ascii]